Foundation House

Foundation House provides services to advance the health, wellbeing and human rights of people from refugee backgrounds in Victoria who have experienced torture or other traumatic events in their country of origin or while fleeing those countries.

The organisation was established in Melbourne in 1987 and is non-denominational, politically neutral and non-aligned. It is constituted as a not-for-profit organisation managed by an elected Board of Management. Our work is funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments, charitable organisations and donations from private individuals.

OUR MISSION

To advance the health, wellbeing and human rights of people from refugee backgrounds who have experienced torture or other traumatic events.

We

Provide services to clients in the form of counselling, advocacy, family support, group work, psycho-education, information and complementary therapies

Work with client communities to improve their capacity to access the services they need and to enable them to support recovery

Offer professional and organisational development, consultancy and resources to assist health, education, employment and other community service providers, to enhance the responsiveness of their services to the needs of people of refugee backgrounds

Work with the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments to ensure that policies and programs have proper regard to the needs of people of refugee backgrounds

Conduct and contribute to research about the needs of people of refugee backgrounds and the best possible ways of meeting those needs

Working throughout Victoria, Foundation House is a state-wide agency offering services in metropolitan, regional and rural areas. We have approximately 200 staff across our three offices in Brunswick, Sunshine and Dandenong, with an outpost in Ringwood. We also provide services in partnership with other agencies in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Mildura, Shepparton, Swan Hill and the Latrobe Valley.

For more information about Foundation House and how we work, please download our stakeholder booklet.

We started in 1987 with one small house and a pile of dreams. There was an incredible and sometimes naive belief in what we were going to accomplish. We made a decision about our service model that kept the clients at the core. The rest followed and we have never shifted from that path.
Paris Aristotle AM CEO Foundation House

Child Safety

The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (also known as Foundation House) is committed to child safety. We are committed to promoting and protecting the interests and safety of children and this is reflected in our organisational policies, protocols and staff development.